Your Kettlebell Fitness Coach Says-Simplify Your Diet With Veggies

Every day I eat at least two pounds of COOKED veggies + fruit, by doing it this way I find it really simplifies my diet as far as veggies and fruits go. That’s a pound of cooked veggies and then a pound of fruit. For instance today I am having the below picture.
PLUS 8 ounces of blueberries and two bananas, in addition, whatever I have tonight with dinner. All my life I have been a habitual POOR veggie eater. I think that’s probably the norm for most of you reading this.

Sure you might eat veggies…but do you eat ENOUGH veggies?

Well, the American heart association uses:

Vegetables:

1 cup of raw leafy vegetables (about the size of a small fist),

1/2 cup of other vegetables or 1/2 cup of vegetable juice.

Fruits:

1 medium fruit (medium is defined as the size of a baseball);

1/2 cup chopped, cooked or canned fruit; or 1/2 cup juice.”

They even allow fruit juice to count!!! Don’t count that, in fact don’t even consume it, it’s loaded with nothing but sugar.

The dietary guidelines for Americans 2015-2020 edition tells a different story. This TOME (literally…it’s about 200 pages) is compiled by a team of dieticians, doctors, nutrition scientists, etc. Arguably it’s as close as we can get to following good guidelines that our government has put out. It’s still flawed and very cumbersome to use, but it does provide a bunch of useful information. Link here – https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/resources/2015-2020_Dietary_Guidelines.pdf

They say (this is paraphrasing because they actually break it down various groups) to eat roughly 10 cups of veggies per day…that’s not counting fruit!!!!

Those are pretty big numbers to fill for an average person that realistically should be consuming at a minimum 10 cups of veggies per day for a male and somewhere around 8 cups as a female…not counting fruit.

How many cups are in a pound? I have no clue. But, I know if I eat a pound of veggies every day, it puts me closer to that 10 cup mark.Here is what it usually breaks down to per day:

1-2 onions

1-2 peppers

6 oz of mushrooms various kinds

5 handfuls of kale

4 handfull broccoli

That’s what it looks like while I am cooking it.

What I have started doing is to put the veggies in a big container, see above, and eat it throughout the day.

What are the benefits to eating soo much fruit and vegetables?

There are three main benefits that can be broken down into many subgroups:
1. Fiber (insoluble and soluble) – fiber will help with bowel movements as well as fill you up, and it provides energy for the beneficial bacteria living in our gut.
2. Vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants – these nutrients are all requisites to living a healthy, disease free life.
3. Pro and prebiotics – fruits and veggies are our main source of pre and probiotics. This biotics, or biota, help populate our microbiome. Taken as a whole, they help us break apart and absorb various nutrients such as protein, carbs, and fat in addition to vitamins and minerals.

But ultimately I don’t give a shit about any of that. I care about feeling and looking good. When I eat enough veggies I notice I have a flatter stomach, my mood and energy is stable and great, AND I have regular bowel movements which help aid my body in detoxification as well as helps prevent bloating.

Going through cancer taught me many lessons – one of them is – the only thing you can control to a large degree is your happiness and your health.
Do things that bring you happiness and health.

Hi, my name is Ben. I am a cancer survivor, blogger, educator and coach. It’s my passion to educate people on health and fitness. The current state of the field is unacceptable to me – overly complicated with too much conflicting information. It’s my goal to help people be as healthy as possible while spending the least amount of time working on it. Work smarter, not harder!

Recent Articles

About Us

Having been involved in the fitness industry for over 15 years, we became increasingly frustrated at the poor standards and lack of good customer service in our industry. Frankly we were sick and tired of gyms where sales numbers were more important than member results... read more